The 20 Coolest Network Security Companies Of 2022: The Security 100

Here’s a look at 20 network security vendors offering everything from log filtering and encrypted traffic visibility to containerized firewalls and SD-WAN.

Navigating The Network

The growth of Bring Your Own Devices (BYOD) policies along with more work from home amid the pandemic is expected to boost network security demand. The global network security market is slated to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 12 percent in the coming years, going from $24.9 billion in 2020 to $60.4 billion in 2028, according to Fortune Business Insights.

Five companies on our list secured six-figure funding rounds, including: Armis, which raised $300 million on a $3.4 billion valuation; Cato Networks, which raised $200 million on a $2.5 billion valuation; Claroty, which raised $400 million on an undisclosed valuation; Dragos, which raised $200 million on a $1.7 billion valuation; and Vectra, which raised $130 million on a $1.2 billion valuation.

Three network security vendors on our list bolstered their technological bona fides through acquisition. Some notable deals include: Cisco’s purchase of Kenna Security to help customers more effectively prioritize vulnerabilities; Claroty’s buy of Medigate to help protect hospitals and life sciences firms; and Ivanti’s acquisition of RiskSense to help clients shrink their attack surface and prioritize vulnerabilities.

As part of CRN’s 2022 Security 100, here’s a look at 20 network security vendors offering everything from log filtering and encrypted traffic visibility to containerized firewalls and SD-WAN.

Armis

Yevgeny Dibrov

Co-Founder, CEO

Armis in September partnered with Gigamon to ensure that managed, unmanaged and IoT devices are secured across cloud environments. Tw o months later, the company closed a $300 million funding round to accelerate platform development, fund go-to-market initiatives and support future acquisitions.

Cato Networks

Shlomo Kramer

Co-Founder, CEO

Cato Cloud brings together SD-WAN, a global private backbone and a full network security stack to connect physical locations, cloud resources and mobile users. The company in October raised $200 million to expand engineering, sales and marketing of the Cato SASE Cloud to capture more enterprise deals.

Check Point Software Technologies

Gil Shwed

Founder, CEO

Check Point in February introduced the Harmony unified offering to secure internet connections as well as corporate and BYOD devices for remote workers. The platform brings together endpoint, browser, email and remote access security into a single offering that’s managed via a cloud service and is available for $11 per user, per month.

Cisco Systems

Chuck Robbins

Chairman, CEO

The Cisco Meraki team in March extended its SD-WAN fabric into the cloud edge to simplify IP security tunnel connectivity and avoid orchestration challenges. The company purchased Kenna Security in June to help customers more effectively prioritize vulnerabilities based on threat intelligence and business impact.

Claroty

Yaniv Vardi

CEO

Claroty in December purchased security startup Medigate and closed a $400 million funding round to broaden its vertical and geographic reach. The Medigate deal will allow Claroty to expand its capabilities beyond the industrial and manufacturing spaces and offer protection to hospitals.

Corelight

Brian Dye

CEO

Corelight launched Command and Control Collection in May to empower threat hunters with actionable insight and detection for malware communication. In October, the company debuted the Corelight Labs research team dedicated to providing content that enables complete monitoring of enterprise network activity.

Darktrace

Poppy Gustafsson

CEO

Darktrace’s Immune System learns the normal pattern of an organization and can interrupt attacks against cloud, email and home office environments. Darktrace was the first security company to pursue a London IPO since 2018, notching a $2.31 billion valuation after revealing surging sales and a significant channel sales motion.

Dragos

Robert Lee

Founder, CEO

Dragos in October closed a $200 million funding round to drive secure intelligence sharing and expand its vertical and geographic presence. The following month, the company integrated with ServiceNow to expand the visibility of OT assets in support of customers undertaking digital transformation initiatives.

Fortinet

Ken Xie

Founder, Chairman, CEO

Fortinet in April rolled out updated FortiGate and FortiExtender tools to deliver security for 5G networks and provide connectivity for SD-WAN and SASE offerings. The company also introduced FortiTrust security services to provide user-based licensing across networks, endpoints and the cloud.

Gigamon

Paul Hooper

CEO

Gigamon Hawk simplifies hybrid infrastructure, eliminates security holes and provides IT teams with full visibility into their cloud environments at scale. The company in June launched ThreatInsight Guided-SaaS network detection and response to improve SOC effectiveness.

Infoblox

Jesper Andersen

President, CEO

Infoblox in February 2021 updated its Network Idenity Operating System to provide support for advanced security, additional cloud integrations and DevOps automation. In June, it unveiled Infoblox 3.0 to drive on-premises, virtual, cloud and hybrid deployments tailored to customers’ network modernization needs.

Ivanti

Jeff Abbott

CEO

Ivanti acquired RiskSense to help customers shrink their attack surface, prioritize vulnerabilities and reduce their exposure to ransomware. The company in October promoted second-in-command Jeff Abbott to replace Jim Schaper as CEO and tasked him with driving an organic and acquisitionbased growth strategy.

Juniper Networks

Rami Rahim

CEO

Juniper Security Director cloud directs connectivity and security services to sites, users and applications and manages SASE transformations. The platform bridges security deployments with future SASE rollouts by providing security that is managed anywhere and everywhere from the cloud.

Nozomi Networks

Edgard Capdevielle

President, CEO

Nozomi Networks in March debuted its Vantage OT and IoT network visibility and security offering to protect OT, IoT, IT, edge and cloud assets, located anywhere, with a single platform. Updates have eliminated “alert fatigue” by narrowing the hundreds of notifications security teams have to parse.

Palo Alto Networks

Nikesh Arora

CEO

Palo Alto Networks in May rolled out SaaS security, advanced URL filtering, DNS security, a cloud identity engine and MLpowered firewalls to drive zero-trust architecture adoption. The company debuted Okyo Garde in September to deliver security to remote workers’ homes and small businesses.

Perimeter 81

Amit Bareket

Co-Founder, CEO

Perimeter81 in March partnered with Microsoft to ensure Azure users have secure, policy-based resource access via zero-trust and software-defined perimeter models. Users get access to essential networking and security tools in a single platform, providing a one-stop-shop for cybersecurity services.

SonicWall

Bill Conner

President, CEO

SonicWall rolled out cloud-native management and analytics to transform threat data into defensive actions to mitigate hidden risks. The company’s virtual offerings and cloud services are paired with on-premises deployments to solve security issues for SMBs, enterprises, governments and MSSPs.

Vectra AI

Hitesh Sheth

President, CEO

Vectra AI in April raised $130 million and aims to use the money to better safeguard microservices in the cloud, including containers and serverless technology. The company in June debuted Vectra Detect for AWS, which provides threat detection and response to attacks targeting applications running on AWS.

Versa Networks

Kelly Ahuja

CEO

Versa Networks in March made SASE more accessible by inserting SASE functions into its Versa Titan SD-WAN offering for smaller customers. Versa in June raised $84 million in a Series D funding round to pump dollars into growing head count and sales and channel partner initiatives.

WatchGuard Technologies

Prakash Panjwani

CEO

WatchGuard in February 2021 unveiled a centralized interface for delivering and managing network security, advanced threat detection and multi-factor authentication. The company in June finished integrating the Panda Security acquisition into WatchGuard Cloud.